In the ‘learn something new every day’ category, it was pointed out to me today that “Mr. Mojo Risin” is an acronym for Jim Morrison. Well, a quick second to look and check and sure enough, yes, it is, and my view of rock history is changed somewhat and I can imagine the etymology of the song, everybody sitting around making acronyms of their names, who knows what they came up with out of Ray Manzarek (Kraazy Namer?), Robbie Krieger (Beer Keg Robir?) and John Densmore (Modern J. Shone?), but when they got to Mr. Mojo Risin, Morrison, vain and obsessive as he was, probably just started saying it over and over again, louder and louder, and the lads, being exceptionally talented and spontaneous individuals, just started playing along.
It could be more thought went into it than that, but I’ll bet not. That’s how songs (and poems) get written.
One of my favorite rock etymologies is from Paul McCartney, who apparently wrote “Yesterday” one fine morning while he was taking a poop, at least that’s how I remember hearing it. He’d just woken up and, in that hazy state of mind when you’re still adjusting to being in the real world rather than the dream world and things in your head are not too fixed and rigid, the song came to him. He said it came to him so complete that he thought he must have heard it before, and asked several people ‘where have I heard this song before?’ before admitting that he’d written it himself.
I am not a religious person, not a believer at all, but our minds are all vessels for something, they have access to all the collected knowledge of all human history, and all the imagery and sensation of the whole world around us, and they are just turning it around and around and trying it from every different angle and, if you’re lucky, something great will pop out.